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[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Perfect Dark is a 2000 first-person shooter game developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64.

The first game of the Perfect Dark series, it follows Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute research centre, as she attempts to stop an extraterrestrial conspiracy by rival corporation dataDyne.

The game features a campaign mode where the player must complete a series of levels to progress through the story, as well as a range of multiplayer options, including a co-operative mode and traditional deathmatch settings with computer-controlled bots.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to try it on Nintendo Switch online. I'll be on vacation, so I'll get an N64 controller.



I only played Goldeneye 64.... At that time, it was very difficult to get the Perfect Dark game because of the limited number of copies.








Opinions?

 

[Ozzie666]

Loved in when it came out. Need the ram expansion 100% to enjoy it. The game is flawed and a sign of the times and obviously can't compare to PC FPS games in terms of performance. But the characters, story, gun play, the game is a technical marvel on the N64. Something about it, they found a way to replace bond with a good character, gadgets, all of it. I still own the cart. Just need to get past the frame rate.

Year 2000 for the N64 and beyond had some great titles. This is one of them, Sin and Punishment, WWF No Mercy (I think it was), Conker. Crazy times near the end of generation.

 

[Neff]

God tier FPS

 

[FinalBossWithTheMostPower]

The original was amazing, if not better than Golden Eye.

Still in disbelief believe they shit-canned the new one.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Still can't forget PDZ, otherwise I might enjoy PD more than I do.

 

[Spukc]

This game was never better then golden eye

 

[drganon]

Never spent much time with the single player campaign, but my cousin and I spent hundreds of hours playing the combat simulator mode against bots.

 

[kunonabi]

I always wanted to like PD but the godawful performance and busted ass multiplayer, dizziness lasting after respawn is quite possibly the dumbest idea ever implemented in a video game, soured me on it.

 

[Calverz]

Perfect Dark is a 2000 first-person shooter game developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64.

The first game of the Perfect Dark series, it follows Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute research centre, as she attempts to stop an extraterrestrial conspiracy by rival corporation dataDyne.

The game features a campaign mode where the player must complete a series of levels to progress through the story, as well as a range of multiplayer options, including a co-operative mode and traditional deathmatch settings with computer-controlled bots.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to try it on Nintendo Switch online. I'll be on vacation, so I'll get an N64 controller.



I only played Goldeneye 64.... At that time, it was very difficult to get the Perfect Dark game because of the limited number of copies.








Opinions?

Amazing game. If you like Goldenye, this game was a wet dream. Especially for the multiplayer options. So many. My friends and I were completely addicted to it.

 

[Soodanim]

Perfect Dark was incredible. So much content. Had a great time in multplayer, too.

I remember seeing Halo for the first time and thinking "That doesn't look as fun as Perfect Dark."

 

[Physiognomonics]

The core game is still outstanding. Everything except the graphics are better than majority of games nowadays.

It's a worthy sequel (without the IP) of Goldeneye 007.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I always read great things about PD, but never played it myself. I even hunted down a copy, but never played it and resold it for a good sum.

The main reason is that I had tried Goldeneye, but it didn't click. Coming from Doom, the controls were very hard for me to grasp, and I didn't really get the mission-based gameplay and a lot of details that make the game. I remember a level where I didn't destroy the security cameras and enemies would just keep coming at me endlessly. I vaguely remember getting to a level where you have to rescue some hostages on a ship, that's where I quit and never returned.

I assumed PD would be more of the same, so I never bothered going back to those games.
I keep telling myself I will someday, but the day still hasn't come.

 

[nkarafo]

I was impressed with all the different "Sims" having different personalities and styles of play. I thought this was going to be the next generation of bots in single player FPS arena games. And then, the Arena FPS games died.

The weapons are some of the best and most imaginative in any FPS, even now. The reload animations are still the best. Really a huge quantity and top quality at the same time. It's the best aspect of the game IMO.

The levels/level design is more consistent than Goldeneye in terms of quality. There aren't any bad looking or rushed levels like the Jungle, Graveyard and Streets in Goldeneye. However, even though Goldeneye has lower lows, it still has higher highs. Dam, Facility, Control, Bunker, etc are some of the best levels ever designed. Perfect Dark has the rooftop first level and maybe the indoor Area 51 that i really like, but other than that i thought the designs were just OK.

Goldeneye's frame rate was inconsistent but fine most of the time for me. There were a couple of levels that run worse but generally you really had to push it on purpose to reach single digits in single player. Perfect dark was worse though. Some levels would drop to single digits without even having enemies on screen. And it had many more levels with bad frame rate spots. And let's not talk about the high res mode or the co-op. This pretty much ruined the game for me and this is coming from someone who didn't have a huge issue with Goldeneye.

The music was great but not as good as in Goldeneye.

The controls are the same as in Goldeneye, meaning they are amazing with the original controller. They have not "aged badly" like most say, you just need to use 1.2 in the options and hold the controller from the left side. This way you can play with a similar scheme as the current standard.

Overall, i would say the game is great and almost as good as Goldeneye, but only if you play it on an emulator, to improve it's frame rate a bit.

 

[Connificent]

I always read great things about PD, but never played it myself. I even hunted down a copy, but never played it and resold it for a good sum.

The main reason is that I had tried Goldeneye, but it didn't click. Coming from Doom, the controls were very hard for me to grasp, and I didn't really get the mission-based gameplay and a lot of details that make the game. I remember a level where I didn't destroy the security cameras and enemies would just keep coming at me endlessly. I vaguely remember getting to a level where you have to rescue some hostages on a ship, that's where I quit and never returned.

I assumed PD would be more of the same, so I never bothered going back to those games.
I keep telling myself I will someday, but the day still hasn't come.

Just play the remasters on Xbox.

 

[nkarafo]

I didn't really get the mission-based gameplay and a lot of details that make the game. I remember a level where I didn't destroy the security cameras and enemies would just keep coming at me endlessly. I vaguely remember getting to a level where you have to rescue some hostages on a ship, that's where I quit and never returned.

Some levels in Goldeneye really need you to play strategically and think of your every move, in order to not trigger some event that will make the level harder than it needs to be, of show you the "mission failed" text.

Especially in 007 more.

My favorite moment was in the Bunker level, where you have to escape the prison. I remember not being able to finish it (i was playing on secret agent mode) because i was getting overwhelmed by the alerting guards. But then i though, what if i play it the same way i would in real life? Think of my every move, go slow, clear the rooms carefully and make sure i don't do too much noise? And this is how i managed to beat the level.

I remember being really excited about it because like you, i was coming from DOOM and Quake and in those games the concept of "stealth" didn't really exist. Goldeneye really gave me the impression that stealth can legit work in games for the first time.

As for the controls, coming from the KB/Mouse, N64 was second nature for me because almosr all FPS games allowed you to play them with Turok's scheme. Which is the same as KB/mouse in a controller form. You just need to not play every game with it's default scheme, you need to go to the options and look for the good one.

 

[vodka-bull]

 

[Germuso]

Turok 2 was better, you know it

 

[nkarafo]

Turok 2 was better, you know it

In what way?

 

[Connificent]

Turok 2 was better, you know it

They both have terrible framerates thats for sure but do I love Turok 1 and 2.

 

[T-0800]

Still can't forget PDZ, otherwise I might enjoy PD more than I do.

PD to PDZ was like a reverse Street Fighter to Street Fighter 2.

 

[Germuso]

In what way?

Dinos with fucking guns.

What the hell us wrong with your cerebral bore.

Well quake was better too.

 

[6502]

Amazing game at the time. Better than Goldeneye in every way aside from maybe framerate. It didn't take off aswell though. It pushed the N64 beyond its' limit. They really should have put a 60fps high res version out for Gamecube launch.

At least we eventually got a nice port on Xbox.

 

[Lux R7]

fantastic game

 

[CGNoire]

Perfect Dark is a 2000 first-person shooter game developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64.

The first game of the Perfect Dark series, it follows Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute research centre, as she attempts to stop an extraterrestrial conspiracy by rival corporation dataDyne.

The game features a campaign mode where the player must complete a series of levels to progress through the story, as well as a range of multiplayer options, including a co-operative mode and traditional deathmatch settings with computer-controlled bots.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to try it on Nintendo Switch online. I'll be on vacation, so I'll get an N64 controller.



I only played Goldeneye 64.... At that time, it was very difficult to get the Perfect Dark game because of the limited number of copies.








Opinions?

There is a version of 1964 emulator that runs PD and Goldeneye at 60fps. Check it out. Game is Simply Sublime.

Also when using the one hand submachine gun hold b to put into autotrack mode. Then hold aim to add enemies to its tracking.

 

[ClanOfNone]

I bought this back in the day without realizing it required the ram pack, game wouldn't run the single player campaign without it. It would load up the first level, but inevitably freeze up within the first two or three minutes of gameplay.
Oddly enough, multiplayer worked fine every time, so I did get to fool around with the bots and crazy weapon selection.

 

[radiant_ch]

Turok 2 was better, you know it

Hard to really compare the two.

While both are first person shooters, they are very different in execution, handling, pace and linearity.

Perfect Darks Leveldesign is far more focused and layered around the story, while you can easily get lost in Turok 2's Lair of the blind ones for example.

Also the story itself. Both have one, sure, but be serious, which one is way more worked out? Which one gets you hooked with Espionage, Conspiracy and Drama?

But both handle weapons in a very creative and exhaustive way , that's true.

I love both to death. But comparing the two doesn't work out. For the same reason it's not really possible to compare Metroid Prime with Quake.

Perfect Dark was and is a milestone, both technically and gameplaywise and way more than just a spiritual successor to GoldenEye. While the latter had (of course) more impact and therefor is more widely known, Perfect Dark was better in every (!) single aspect. You can only ignore that wearing rose-colored glasses

 

[The ninja farmer]

Back in the day. This was a big release for me. The spiritual sequel to bond, bots for one of the first times I had encountered in a full on console shooter. Not to mention the crazy weapons, so many to try and mess around with. And I'd had hours of fun in goldeneye, stacking proximity mines to create corridors of destruction and fire. Once triggered . That and getting the editor options on the various levels. A badge of honour to show you had completed the game on the hardest, most punishing level

The ram pack in my n64. Was bought pretty much for this game. I used to wonder what it would bring in perfect dark ? That goldeneye didn't have ? (And that had a special place in my heart and was along with iss64 and Mario kart. Never far from my n64 at any point for years )

Ignoring the frame rate, dodgy colours at times and a million other little performance things. This was truly a feast for the console shooter fan. It was like a game from the future, literally . All the game modes, a shooting range to test weapons and discover alternative fire modes. A base to wander about. It's funny that a lot of games these days. Still have that basic template or idea for their layout

I was also another one. That with some friends, lost hundreds of hours to shooting bots, with those weapons that could see and travel through walls

The campaign was cool and really went for it. Even if the n64 couldn't quite keep up. You had to admire rare. They knew they couldn't top bond. So rather than compete, they went full sci-fi and embraced the full on craziness of the future setting and tech.

Good times my friends. Good times

 

[Sephimoth]

Game was amazing. I was so glad they brought back Facility (Felicity) map from GoldenEye for MP because that was the GOAT. Wasn't a fan of many of the other MP maps, but maybe we just didn't play them enough because Felicity was our goto.

It's a shame the new one tried to be the biggest game ever, which likely led to scope creep and ultimately cancellation. They should have just created one in the vein of the N64 format but with modern graphics and 60fps.
Games try to be too ambitious and epic these days, all people want is fun.

 

[nkarafo]

There is a version of 1964 emulator that runs PD and Goldeneye at 60fps.

This is a very old and buggy emulator. There is no need for that.

More recent versions of both PJ64 and Mupen have overclocking options to allow 60fps for these games, while also having the option to use more modern plugins.

 

[BlackTron]

This game was never better then golden eye

Objectively PD is a bigger badder "sequel" and you can play the MP with bots.

But Goldeneye has Bond with silenced PP7. Checkmate

 

[CGNoire]

This is a very old and buggy emulator. There is no need for that.

More recent versions of both PJ64 and Mupen have overclocking options to allow 60fps for these games, while also having the option to use more modern plugins.

Huh.ive never had an issue. They both work flawlessy at 4k. No hicups or anything.

 

[Dacvak]

Started replaying this on Switch this year, and it's still just so good, especially with the higher framerate on Switch. I'm playing with the wireless N64 controller, and the controls are just as janky as they've always been, but you get used to them relatively fast.

Inverted Y axis for life.

 

[keefged4]

Probably my most played game ever

 

[Shifty1897]

Legendary game, you could feel the N64 melting trying to run it.

 

[clarky]

It's a shame the new one tried to be the biggest game ever, which likely led to scope creep and ultimately cancellation.

You just made this up.

 

[Sephimoth]

You just made this up.

Which part?

"It's a shame the new one tried to be the biggest game ever" - Microsoft referred to The Initiative as a AAAA team in job listings.
"which likely led to scope creep" - Speculation inferred by the word 'likely'
"and ultimately cancellation" - It got cancelled

 

[clarky]

Which part?

"It's a shame the new one tried to be the biggest game ever" - Microsoft referred to The Initiative as a AAAA team in job listings.
"which likely led to scope creep" - Speculation inferred by the word 'likely'
"and ultimately cancellation" - It got cancelled

All of it. Well apart from the cancelled bit.

 

[Sephimoth]

All of it. Well apart from the cancelled bit.

 

[Deerock71]

It's modes are still unmatched. I can't believe what Rare was able to come up with and capitalize on with the N64.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

PD to PDZ was like a reverse Street Fighter to Street Fighter 2.

If you want to be generous, sure

 

[TintoConCasera]

Loved this game back then. The campaign was super cool, the difficulty went from easy to really challenging so everyone could find their sweet spot, and the game had so much content it's almost crazy: campaign (with coop), secret missions to unlock, the multiplayer mode with bots and a challenge mode in which I never managed to get very far lmao), not to mention the shooting range to unlock the Goldeneye guns and probably more stuff I'm forgetting about.

Amazing game.

 

[Baemono]

Opinions?

Can't wait for the reboot

 

[Spukc]

In what way?

Gun porn for sure.
Not sure about anything else tho

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

I want to play it with you guys. I wish there was a way to play online.

On Switch 2

 

[Baemono]

I want to play it with you guys. I wish there was a way to play online.

On Switch 2

You can't ?

 

[March Climber]

Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, and Timesplitters are 3 franchises that sadly had very, very little successors with how they did mission structure and opening up a map further when you played it on a harder difficulty.

I think their formula for level-based campaigns would have benefitted the shooter genre as a whole.

When I played CoD campaigns I imagined how much cooler they would be if increasing the difficulty led to new scenarios and locations rather than the enemy AI spamming grenades and headshots.

 

[Rran]

I loved it. FPSes went a totally different direction when Halo launched but I miss this style of espionage, missions, and crazy in-depth multiplayer.

The guns were wild too. Laptop Gun, Farsight, Cyclone, RCP-120, even the humble Remote Mines were great fun. And those gorgeous reload animations!

 

[violence]

I got the PC port working a few weeks ago. It's great. I still find Goldeneye more fun even though it's inferior in a lot of ways. Maybe it's the level design?

 

[keefged4]

The OST has lived rent free in my head for the last 25 years and will continue to do so, thank you very much.

 

[Unknown?]

It was ported to the Vita, I recently got it but never played it yet.